Escape From the Cabin
by Stella Luce 333
Summary: Yumi, Ulrick, & Od think they're in a cabin in the countryside, but they're actually caught in one of XANA's tricks. Our heroes have one hour to escape…or else its game over for good. Will they be able to solve the puzzles & escape before time runs out? ON HOLD
1. Chapter 1

**Takes place during Season 4.**

Alita's POV:

"Hey, watch it!" Sissy said from behind me. "You nerds can't just stop walking in the middle of the hallway!"

"Sorry." I said, as I resumed walking. Jeremy fell into step beside me as Sissy huffed away.

"It's always a little disorienting when the Return trip puts us back in the middle of doing something." Jeremy whispered.

"You're right, but Sissy doesn't need a reason to be mean." I said. "Luckily, I don't care what she thinks of me."

"At lest we know the rest of our first day will be quiet." Jeremy said. "This time around, at least..."

"Yep, no XANA attacks. Just Sissy attacks." I said as we took our seats in Mrs. Hertz's class for first period.

The bell rang, & Mrs. Hertz began to call roll. Eventually, she made her way down to the D names.

"Della Robbia?" She called. No answer. "Od Della Robbia?"

"Do you think he fell asleep again?" Jeremy whispered to me with a laugh. He had done this on our _other_ first day, before the XANA attack.

"He's probably just upset that XANA didn't give him a second breakfast." I whispered back, turning around to nudge Od awake. My laughter turned to panic in an instant.

Od wasn't there. Neither was Ulrick, who was supposed to be sitting next to him.

Where were they?

* * *

Yumi's POV:

I woke up with the sun shining through my windows. I felt a surge of panic.

I had slept through my alarm. I was late for school!

I cursed as I untangled myself from the covers & raced for the hallway. I halted in my doorway. Something seemed off...

I glanced back behind me. This wasn't my bedroom...I turned back to the strange hallway in front of me. Where am I?

Ulrick emerged from the doorway across the hall, looking equally as confused as I was.

"Morning." he said. "Man, I just had the worst dream - XANA had sent robot dogs to attack the school. Then, I thought I was actually late for the first day!" He laughed softly. "I guess I really need this vacation."

My panic dissolved as my memory returned. We had all decided to rent a cabin in the French countryside during the last week of summer vacation.

We walked down the hall to the kitchen, to discover that Od was already up & making breakfast.

"Morning sleepyheads!" he greeted cheerfully.

"You're up early." I commented.

"Yeah. I had this sense of dread, like school was starting today or something. So, I decided to make breakfast to calm my nerves." He pulled out a tray of croissants from the oven. "The first batch is on the table."

Ulrick & I exchanged a nervous look. Od? Cooking?

"What? Just because I almost caused a small kitchen fire in Home Ec class doesn't mean I don't know how to cook." Od said, sensing our hesitation.

"Where are Jeremy & Alita?" I asked, taking a seat at the table. Ulrick & I helped ourselves to the croissants, which Od had covered in cream & strawberry slices. They actually tasted good!

"Out for a walk. They left us a note." Od said. "They said they'd be back soon."

We ate in silence for a while. Even though everything seemed to be all right on the surface, something at the back of mind just felt _wrong_...

"Do you guys have luggage?" I asked.

"I...guess so." Ulrick said, confused. "Why? Did you forget something?"

"This just doesn't feel right." I said. "I know where we are, but...I also don't know where we are..."

"We're in a cabin in the French countryside." Od said. He had joined us at the table.

"Ok, but what in what town?"

Od looked concerned. Neither he nor Ulrick had an answer.

"How did we even get out here?" Ulrick asked. "We've had a driving lesson with Jim, but none of us own a car...Yumi's right. Something doesn't add up."

"What we need is a nice breath of fresh air." Od said, standing. He walked over to the window to open it.

"Huh. The window is stuck." he said. "Let's go out & sit on the porch."

Still feeling uneasy, we all got up & went to the front door in the living room. I reached the door first, so I tugged on the door handle...but it wouldn't turn. Pushing & pulling on it had no effect either.

We were locked in!

* * *

**Here we have two different sequences of events. Which one is the truth?**

**Ok, if you read the summary, you probably already know the answer to that…Next time, our heroes learn what the stakes are for their escape. Will they be able to make it out in time?**

**Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

Alita's POV:

"Take the path in front of you & go left. I think I found them." Jeremy said when I arrived in the Forest Sector. I waved my hand over my bracelet to activate my wings for extra speed. It wasn't long before I saw what Jeremy had discovered on the map.

"A simulation bubble." I said to myself as I landed lightly on my feet.

"Can you get them out of there?"

"Of course. It'll be a piece of cake." I placed both hands on the bubble as I concentrated on my ability to alter the digital landscape around me. In my mind, I saw the codes that made up this virtual world...

I felt a sudden sting of pain in my arm, & I cried out as my concentration broke. I turned to see a Manta hovering nearby...getting ready for another shot.

I used my wings to fly into the air. I was able to hit it with an Energy Field before I got hit from behind. I fell back onto the path, & turned to see anther Manta behind me.

"Run, Alita!" Jeremy said. I took off at a run. I eyed the trees around me. Mantas usually traveled in packs of three. Just because I didn't _see_ a third one didn't mean it wasn't there...

I found a small empty tree trunk on the side of the path & ducked inside. The only way the Manta could attack me was if it came straight at me. I tensed myself for a fight.

It didn't take the bait.

"...Jeremy? Are they still out there?" I asked.

"Yeah, sort of...It's weird. They backed off once you ran. It's like they're more concerned with protecting the bubble than they are with you."

"XANA has tried this type of trick before. He knows I'm the only one with the power to save them." I thought a moment. "What about the tower? If I can deactivate it, then the bubble goes away too, right?"

"Too risky." Jeremy said. "Willem's there, with a whole army of monsters. XANA's certainly not making this easy for us."

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"I don't know. If you lose all your life points, it'll be a while before we can try again, & who knows what XANA would do to the others." Jeremy thought for a moment. "Let me analyze this thing. Maybe I can find a way to break them out, or get a message to them, or..." He trailed off.

"Alita! There's a Megatank behind you, look out!"

I jumped out of the way as the blast tore through my hiding place.

I was safe...for now.

* * *

Yumi's POV:

We sat in silence in the living room, trying to figure out how we had gotten here.

"Maybe Jeremy & Alita locked the door behind them when they left?" Od asked, breaking the silence. Ulrick & I turned to look at him. "What? It's a possibility, at least..."

"You don't feel like something weird is going on?" Ulrick asked him.

"No, I do. I was just hoping that it was in my head." he sighed. "Ok, what's the last thing we remember before we woke up here? 'Cuz I had this freaky dream that robot dogs were taking over the school..."

"I had the same dream." I said. "I was in home room, & Ulrick called me because XANA was attacking."

"Because they attacked our home room first." Ulrick said. "Od & I fought them off, got the class out, but there were more waiting."

"So everybody went back inside, Jeremy & Alita knocked the first dogs out using their combined tech skills, & we snuck out a window to the Factory." Od chimed in.

"We all out ran the dogs & met at the Factory." I said.

"Wait a minute. Did we all have the same dream?" Od asked.

"Unless it wasn't a dream at all." Ulrick said. "What if the dogs were a diversion, a trick to lure us to Lyoko to trap us?"

The TV set suddenly turned on with a burst of static, causing all of us to jump.

"...Yumi...Ulrick...Od...Are you there? Can you read me?" It was Jeremy! The static eventually settled enough so we could see & hear him. He was in the supercomputer room of the Factory.

"Loud & clear, Jeremy." I said. "What's going on?"

"Listen, I don't have much time. I don't know how long I can keep this line open before XANA discovers it. You're still on Lyoko. XANA's trapped you in a simulation bubble."

We shared a glance. "Yeah, we just figured that out." Ulrick said. "Can Alita break us out of here?"

"She's trying, XANA isn't making it easy, but it's worse than that." He paused. "This isn't a normal simulation bubble. XANA has infected it with a virus to attack your digital envelopes. The longer you stay in here, the more damage it will inflict, until..."

"Until?" I prompted.

"Until you'll be trapped on Lyoko...forever."

"...How much time do we have?" I asked after a moment of stunned silence.

"By my calculations, one hour."

"So what do we do?" Od asked.

Static started to creep back into the picture. "If there's a way to break out from the inside, do it. We're doing everything we can..." There was a burst of static, & the TV set shut itself off. A grandfather clock by the front door chimed the hor.

The next time it chimed, we would be stuck on Lyoko...permanently.

* * *

Since this nightmare started when we woke up, we decided to start by searching the bedrooms & move outward from there.

I pulled the sheets off my bed, lifted the mattress...Nothing there. I looked under my pillow, even pulling the pillow case off to inspect both. Still nothing...

I checked the desk by the window. I found some paper & a pen in one of the drawers, but otherwise, it was empty.

I went to the bookshelf on the wall. It held a small assortment of books, but nothing appeared to be stuck inside them. I examined the titles.

_Tight Rope Walking for Fun and Profit. Passion of Romance. Bodies in the Fog. Wizards of Yesterday. Robots of the Future. Battle of the Night._

I've never heard of any of those titles before, but they didn't seem to be in any particular order or pattern, so I moved out into the hall.

"Did you guys find anything?" I called.

"Not yet!" was the response. So, I started looking around the hallway while I waited. The only thing of note was a picture hanging on the wall. I was able to lift it off easily.

There was a secret compartment in the wall! A flashlight lay inside.

"Guys!" I called out. "I think I found something!" I reached inside, pulled it out, & turned it on. It emitted a purplish glow.

"What is it?" Ulrick asked.

"A black light." I said. While the boys watched, I swept it over the walls. Eventually, we found something drawn on the wall by my bedroom door.

It was the image of a heart, with the number 228 written inside.

* * *

**Next time, we'll find out what that strange symbol actually means…unless you think you already know the answer…**

**Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

Yumi's POV:

"Maybe that's the key to unlock the door?" Od suggested.

"No." Ulrick said. "It's a normal lock. We're looking for a physical key, not a number. Besides, what does the heart mean?"

"Love? Romance? Passion?"

"The books!" I said as I put it together. I ran back into my room, with the boys right behind me, & grabbed the romance novel off the shelf. I flipped to page 228. The page seemed completely normal...until I shone the black light on it. Letters were underlined all throughout the page.

"Write this down." I said. Od grabbed a piece of paper from the desk & wrote down the letters as I called them out.

"That's it." I said. "Anything?"

"It's a message!" Od said. "Look under the sofa!"

We raced to the living room. A small black box was tucked underneath the sofa.

"It's a safe." I said.

"Try 228?" Od asked.

"No, it's a five digit combination lock."

"Numbers or letters?" Ulrick asked.

"Numbers." I confirmed. "Why?"

"I might have found something."

* * *

"I found this etched into the windowsill." Ulrick said. We were back in the boys' bedroom. "A=9. I didn't know what it meant, so I didn't think anything of it."

"Spread out." I said. "We need four more numbers." Od & Ulrick got to work checking their beds, while I started rooting through the dresser.

"Got one!" Od said, running his fingers along one of the bed frames. "I=4."

I kept sorting, checking everything carefully. Finally, I discovered a clue under the socks. "B=2."

"N=1." Ulrick said, examining the picture frame above his bed.

We were on a roll...until we weren't. I had emptied the dressers completely, but had only found my one clue. The only thing in the room that didn't seem to have any clues was Ulrick's bed, so that must be where the final clue was hidden.

We stripped the sheets & emptied the pillowcases. Nothing. Nothing appeared etched into the bed frame ether. We were thinking about trying to flip the mattress when we pulled the bed out from the wall slightly.

"Wait, there's something there!" Od exclaimed, pushing the bed a little further away from the wall. "C=7!" He scribbled it down on the paper, where he had been keeping track of the numbers we had found. "It's 94217!" He ran out of the room.

"Od, wait!" Ulrick & I ran after him. We found him in the living room, trying the lock for the safe.

"It's not working." he said.

"I don't think the order we found them is necessarily the right order to enter them." Ulrick said.

"I guess we'll have to try them all, then." Od said.

"That's over a hundred different ways." I said. "We don't have time for all that."

"Then how are we supposed to know what order to put them in?" Od asked. We sat in silence for a moment, each of us trying to work through this puzzle. Ulrick spoke up first.

"I think I've got it."

* * *

**Ulrick thinks he knows the answer…How about you? Can you figure it out?**

**Please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

Ulrick's POV:

"Each number is tied to a letter." I explained. "We need a five digit code, so we need to unscramble the letters." I ripped a strip of paper off the bottom, & tore that into five pieces, writing one letter on each. We spread them out on the floor, moving them around & trying different combinations.

We came up with three letter combos easily, but in the end, there was only one answer that used all five letters. I groaned when I realized how obvious it was.

_Cabin_. So, 79241.

I entered the combination in the lock, & felt a sense of satisfaction when it clicked open. The safe swung open. There was nothing inside but a small piece of paper.

_"I have a head & a tail, but I don't have a body."_

"What's that supposed to mean?" Od asked.

"I don't know." Yumi said. "But it's definitely not a key."

"She's right. This could just be XANA's way of keeping us busy while our time runs out." I said. "Let's get back to the search."

We split back up. Od started rummaging around the bedrooms, while Yumi & I stayed out in the hall.

"You don't think XANA would hide anything in the bathroom, do you?" I asked.

"I hope not." she said. We took in the empty hallway. "Maybe there's something here that we're overlooking?"

We each took opposite sides, looking for anything that might be helpful. Any clues etched into the wall, anything loose on the floor, anything that we might have missed. I was about to suggest we search someplace else when I noticed something.

"Hey, guys, come take a look at this." I said, calling them over. It was a small slit in the wall. Something small & thin could fit through it, but not much else.

"What is that?" Yumi asked.

"I don't know." I said. It was too thin for a finger to get through. "Ok, so now we have two puzzles: the riddle, & this thing."

"Not to mention the key to actually get out of here." Od said.

Feeling like our bedroom had been thoroughly searched, we wandered back into Yumi's.

"Did you pull everything out of the drawers?" Od asked after a while.

"Yeah, I took everything out & didn't find anything." Yumi said.

"Even under the false bottom in the top drawer?"

"What? No." she said. "How did you find that?"

"It's easy. I have one at home. With five older sisters, I've learned to never leave anything private out in the open." He lifted the bottom out with ease. We crowded around to see what was inside.

The only thing hidden away was a small piggy bank.

"Why would XANA go to the trouble of hiding this?" Yumi asked. Od smiled.

"Because this just solved both of our puzzles."

* * *

**Do you guys think Od is right? What could be the answer to both the riddle & Ulrick's discovery in the hallway?**

**Please review!**


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